Doctor accused of selling false hope to desperate families

Claiming that drugs he designed cure cancer, this Houston internist is both revered and reviled

11:59 AM,
Nov. 15, 2013

Niasia and Jose Cotto and their 1-year-old, Noah, pose with a photograph of their son Josia in the doorway of their home in Linden, N.J. Josia, a patient of Stanislaw Burzynski's, died of a brain tumor.

Written by

Liz Szabo

The 6-year-old boy had been fighting an inoperable brain tumor for 10 months. When his mother, Niasia Cotto, found him in his bed, unresponsive and unable to open his eyes, "we knew there was nothing else that we could do," she said.

An ambulance took Josia to a hospice room at a local hospital. His parents covered him in a soft, blue-and-white blanket, hugged him and held his small hand for the last time. ...